How does fear work in marketing?

Research shows that there are two primary considerations that control how threatened we feel:

Perceived Vulnerability – Translation: ‘How likely is it to hurt me?‘

Perceived Severity – Translation: ‘How bad will it hurt?‘

If people feel that they are likely (high vulnerability) to be hurt badly (high severity) they will feel threatened.

But is this enough to get them to take action?

Research shows that there is a third element that plays an important role in a person deciding whether they will take action to avoid a threat.

Listen up because this part is important. After all, it’s the action (purchase, donate, subscribe) that the marketer is after.

This third element is called efficacy. Efficacy is a person’s perception as to whether or not they can do anything about the threat. Those that feel they have no control, will take no action.

Let’s review before we take a look at some examples of fear in marketing and advertising.

To use fear to drive someone to action you must prove the following to the consumer,

You are likely to be affected

When it affects you, it will be painful

You have the ability to avoid this pain

Let’s be clear, marketers will find it very difficult to manufacture a fear that doesn’t exist. The right approach is to point out a fear that already exists, empathize with that fear, and then remove the threat with your solution.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of fear in marketing.

World Wildlife Fund

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is known for their clever ads which raise awareness about environmental issues. Most of their ads employ fear tactics to drive action.

This ad about climate change feeds off the end-of-the-world fear people have in relation to climate change. WWF provides a solution in the form of the viewers’ action.

In fact, the entire WWF website is set up to raise a threat and then provide the solution,

A main navigation item on the WWF site is ‘Threats.’

WWF also understands that they must prove the likelihood and severity of the threats as well as convince website visitors that they can reduce this threat.

Calls-to-action like this one are sprinkled throughout the WWF site,

This call-to-action might convince you that you can remove this threat if you take the action they are prescribing

Logitech Video Security

Logitech’s video security system website uses a great headline echoing a fear that parents have that their children are not safe.

The headline: “Who’s babysitting your babysitter?”

This simple question asks what many parents have already asked themselves – can they trust their babysitter? A headline like this shows the customer that they’re not alone in their fear. And this fear specifically relates to Logitech’s product – their home video security system.

Logitech’s “Busted!” video campaign is intended to raise the likelihood and severity of the threat that there product can help you avert.

These are videos submitted by customers showing the Logitech system hard at work, removing real threats.

Save the Children

Another type of fear tactic involves soliciting a more emotional response.

Emotional appeals have long been used by charity and relief organizations. Appeals like these often center around fear – fear that a child might die and fear that you’re not doing enough to make a difference in the world.

Notice how a threat is created and the “You can help” call-to-action assures you that you can avert the threat.

In this example from Save the Children’s website, this image of a starving child appeals to the viewer’s emotion while the copy puts the ball squarely in your court,

Without you, a child like Nasibah goes without.

It’s commonly known that relief organizations like this one encounter life and death situations. This advertisement highlights a fear that is already known and suggests that the viewer can provide the solution.

Victoria’s Secret

Let’s not forget the most classic fear of all in marketing circles — the fear of missing out on a great deal.

This “last chance” wording shows up time and again in Victoria’s Secret marketing messages.

Their home page alone has three examples of this type of fear tactic. “Ends tomorrow!”, “today only!”, and “last day!” all appeal to the fear that you might miss out if you don’t act now.

Making your sale offer for a limited time and telling your potential customers that time is running out is a good way to inspire immediate action. Just be sure it’s not over-used!

The ethics of using fear in marketing

There are many ways to inspire action.

Fear is just one method — but a very effective one.

For some products, services and causes fear may be the only way to market effectively. For others, fear is just one of many angles they could take with their marketing.

Follow the formula discussed earlier: provide a solution to an existing fear — don’t try to manufacture fear. But understand that there is certainly a fine line between ethical and unethical use of fear in marketing.

What about you? Do you feel this soap brand is using fear in an ethical and effective manner?

DON’T MISS OUT

Russ Henneberry is the Editorial Director at Digital Marketer. He's worked on digital marketing projects for companies like CrazyEgg, Salesforce.com and Network Solutions. You can connect with Russ on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or on his blog.

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Hi there, you are over-generalizing for many of these ads. Only the first are fear appeals, which present threats to the person or their close family. The ads for Save the Children are definitively NOT fear appeals, they are guilt appeals–the ad is predicting that people will anticipate feeling guilty if they don’t help (see, for example, crx.sagepub.com/content/34/4/468.abstract). The ads for Victoria’s Secret are also not fear appeals. Think about it for a minute: you are saying here that people feel the emotion of fear when they think abouty missing out on a good deal. No, not unless they are psychologically maladjusted. The emotion that this ad is trying to evoke is anticipated regret (see, for example, arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=13501).

This obviously an ad meant to shock. My response to the ad is that it is overblown, but not unethical. Most of all, it is inaccurate. I don’t believe on a daily basis I touch so many surfaces that have been scaled by bugs that I would pass the germs to my baby. And I flat out don’t “buy” the tagline.

The soap brand used in the picture is using fear in an effective manner for sure though I could imagine argument both ways when it comes to ethics. However, I think it is an ugly looking ad that causes eyes to look away from this picture…